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US-Canada 2023 Migration Deal Aims To End Walk-Around Crossings

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Vermont’s St. Johnsbury — With the agreement on immigration announced on Friday by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Joe Biden, a process that has let tens of thousands of immigrants travel between the two countries on a backroad between New York state and Quebec will be stopped.

Since the beginning of 2017, there have been so many people crossing into Canada via Roxham Road near Champlain, New York, that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has established a processing facility for them that is less than five miles (8 km) from the official border crossing where they would be sent back to the United States. Although Mounties had warned them that they would be detained, they were given permission to stay in Canada and pursue their cases, which can take years to resolve.

According to the new regulations, anyone seeking asylum who does not possess U.S. or Canadian citizenship and is apprehended within 14 days of crossing the border will be turned back. According to Canadian officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the agreement in advance, it was scheduled to go into effect a minute after midnight on Saturday. This speedy implementation was done to prevent a sudden influx of people trying to claim refugee status.

To make sure that travel between our two countries is fair and runs smoothly, Canada said it would expand the Safe Third Country Agreement so that it applies at authorized ports of entry and all along the land border, including on internal waterways.

The Western Hemisphere’s 15,000 migrants will be permitted to apply “on a humanitarian basis from Canada over the year, with a path to economic opportunities to address forced displacement, as an alternative to irregular migration,” according to the agreement.

About eight people in two families, one from Haiti and the other from Afghanistan, were among the last migrants to pass through, and they arrived at the American end of Roxham Road shortly after dawn on Friday. Both claimed to have traveled around to get there.

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A loophole in a 2002 agreement between the United States and Canada.

The 28-year-old Gerson Solay carried Bianca to the border. He said he needed more papers to continue living in the U.S.

Before he was hauled into prison for processing, he said, “That is why Canada is my last destination.

The agreement occurs as the U.S. Border Patrol reacts to a sharp rise in unauthorized southbound crossings along the open Canadian border. Nearly all occur at the section of the border closest to Toronto and Montreal, Canada’s two largest cities, in northern New York and Vermont.

It’s unknown how Roxham Road became a popular route, but it can be reached in a short taxi ride from the point where Interstate 87 approaches the Canadian border, and for migrants traveling south, it’s a short trip to New York City.

Even though the number is still small compared to the U.S.-Mexico border, the Border Patrol has added more people to the area and started letting some migrants into Vermont with a date to meet with immigration officials.

Since early 2017, Canadian officials have needed help managing this. Many migrants traveling northward claimed they left because they believed President Donald Trump’s immigration policies would be unfriendly to their stay in the country. Since the Biden administration took office, the process has continued.

These immigrants have taken advantage of a loophole in a 2002 agreement between the United States and Canada, which states that asylum applicants must do so in the nation they first enter. Those who cross into Canada legally are sent back to the United States and instructed to apply there. However, persons who enter Canada outside of a port of entry can stay and ask for protection.

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Southbound migrants are currently putting a burden on American border personnel.

U.S. Border Patrol authorities apprehended 628 illegal immigrants from Canada in February, which is more than five times as many as at the same time last year. Even though those figures pale compared to the number of migrants arriving from Mexico, where more than 220,000 were apprehended in just December, there has been a significant improvement in percentage terms.

Agents in the Swanton Sector of the Border Patrol, which includes parts of upstate New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire, stopped migrants 418 times in February, an increase of more than ten times over the same month last year. Mexican citizens, who can fly to Canada from Mexico without a visa, make up around half of those coming from Canada.

The police chief of St. Johnsbury, Vermont, which has a population of 6,000 and is about an hour south of the border, informed state authorities that the Border Patrol had unexpectedly dropped off a vanload of immigrants at the town’s welcome center. The same event has occurred multiple times in the previous few weeks.

The migrants who were let off in St. Johnsbury, according to a statement from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, had been detained along the border after entering the country illegally. They were given the notice to appear for further immigration proceedings.

Because St. Johnsbury has a bus terminal where migrants can board a bus to a bigger city, they were left there.

According to the statement, “in such cases, USBP collaborates with local communities to ensure the safety of all parties—both community members and migrants—as well as the stability in the community’s resources.”

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They claimed to have been in Canada for two months but did not discuss what had led them to continue traveling.

But according to local officials, they needed to be given more time to plan. State officials are currently setting up a mechanism to offer any services that migrants might need.

A Haitian couple and their three children—two boys, ages 17 and 9, and a girl, 15—were dropped off at the welcome center on Thursday. The family, who wanted to remain anonymous, desired to board a bus for Miami.

They claimed to have been in Canada for two months but did not discuss what had led them to continue traveling.

They missed the bus on Thursday that would have let them connect to one in Boston from which they could board another bus to Miami. A group of neighborhood volunteers spent the day providing food, helping them locate lodging for the night, and setting up transportation for them to catch the bus on Friday.

St. Johnsbury wants to assist these migrants, but not immediately, according to police chief Tim Page.

To know what to do when these families arrive, he stated, “We need to write something down.” “This will all go a little smoother when we have a system set up,” someone said.

SOURCE – (AP)

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Canada to Expedite the Rejection of Bogus Refugee Claims

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Canada to Fast-Tracking Refugee Refusals

Canada’s immigration minister, Marc Miller, has announced that he intends to suggest reforms to the nation’s refugee system. These reforms could expedite the rejection of cases with a low likelihood of success.

“I intend to bring up additional initiatives. I intend to reform the system. “It is not working as it should,” Immigration Minister Marc Miller told a parliamentary committee on Monday.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been shifting his government’s friendly posture toward migrants. He promises to limit immigration and Canada’s population over the next two years as his party falls in polls and Canadians express waning support for new arrivals.

The Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, an independent adjudicator of refugee claims, is receiving claims from “people with increasingly fewer hopes to stay in Canada and being counseled to file, I believe unjustly, asylum claims where they should not be able to do so,” Miller added.

In recent months, Canada has seen an all-time high number of refugee claims. Although the monthly total fell to roughly 17,400 in October from above 20,000 in July, the number of claims pending was the highest ever, at more than 260,000 last month.

Statistics Canada reports that more than 265,000 non-permanent residents arrived in Canada during the second quarter of 2024.

Miller has called into question the legitimacy of thousands of refugee petitions filed by international students.

The reforms would try, in part, to discourage people who planned to utilize their international studies as a gateway to permanent residency in Canada from submitting refugee claims as a last-ditch effort to stay now that new laws have closed that avenue.

According to the Immigration and Refugee Board, 46,736 people have sought asylum in Canada since March of this year. This represents a 62% increase over 2023, with a backlog of 186,000 claimants.

An increase in temporary immigration has been connected to Canada’s housing crisis. In April, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cautioned that the situation needed to be “under control,” claiming that temporary immigration had “grown at a rate far beyond what Canada has been able to absorb.”

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Notorious Serial Killer Paul Bernardo Denied Parole

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Serial killer Paul Bernardo
Serial killer Paul Bernardo makes third attempt at release before Canada parole board

Paul Bernardo, a notorious serial killer, has been denied parole for the third time during a hearing before the Parole Board of Canada.

The parole board stated that, while Bernardo has made some progress while incarcerated, there is still great worry about his potential for sexual recidivism and narcissistic personality disorder, given the “extremely violent” nature of his crimes.

Paul Bernardo, a dangerous offender, is serving an indeterminate life sentence for the kidnapping, sexual assault, and murder of Kristen French, 15, and Leslie Mahaffy, 14, in the early 1990s near St. Catharines, Ontario.

The 60-year-old told the board that his primary goal was to obtain day parole at a halfway house or, at the very least, escorted absences from jail so that he could attend a community program for sex offenders.

Leslie’s mother, Debbie Mahaffy, arrived in person on behalf of both families. Meanwhile, Kristen’s mother, Donna French, delivered her victim impact statement virtually.

Tim Danson, the families’ lawyer, noted, “Unfortunately, Donna French will be unable to attend the hearing due to PBC’s short notice and last-minute change in position. “She will deliver her victim impact statement virtually.”

Bernardo also killed his sister-in-law, Tammy Homolka. Karla Homolka, his ex-wife, served a 12-year sentence for manslaughter in the French and Mahaffy murders.

Last year, Bernardo’s transfer from a maximum-security prison to a medium-security facility in Quebec sparked widespread outrage.

The victims’ family presented an emotional case against Bernardo’s release, claiming they had been re-traumatized every time his parole hearings came up.

After about 30 minutes of deliberation, the parole board decided at the end of a daylong hearing at the La Macaza Institution in Quebec, where Bernardo is now housed.

About Paul Bernardo

Paul Bernardo is a Canadian serial rapist and murderer. During the 1980s and early 1990s, he committed heinous atrocities alongside his wife, Karla Homolka.

They were jointly responsible for the sexual assault and murder of several young women, including Karla’s sister, Tammy Homolka. Bernardo also became known as the “Scarborough Rapist,” having committed more than a dozen sexual assaults in the Toronto region.

In 1995, he was convicted of many offenses, including first-degree murder and aggravated sexual assault, and sentenced to life. His case is still one of Canada’s most prominent criminal investigations.

 

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‘Keep Calm and Gobble On’: Joe Biden Holds Trump’s Final Turkey Pardon.

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AFP

(VOR News) – Vice President Joe Biden delivered a message to the American populace during his concluding Thanksgiving turkey pardon ceremony on Monday, encouraging them to “maintain composure and gobble on.”

Prior to Donald Trump’s potential return to the White House, this communication was conveyed.

The 82-year-old U.S. Vice President Joe Biden guaranteed that the birds Peach and Blossom would not be served at the American dinner table over the forthcoming holiday.

Joe Biden has observed this peculiar tradition for a long time.

Vice President Joe Biden, addressing a large audience on the South Lawn of the presidential palace, asserted that Blossom’s mindset was characterized by “no foul play,” while Peach adhered to the principle of “keep calm and gobble on” in a series of remarks. The audience was the intended recipient of these statements.

The two avian creatures “remained composed and continued to gobble, and they are still gobbling” as they journeyed from the Minnesota farm of their origin to Washington, he elaborated. During their relocation from Minnesota to Washington, he made this statement.

Notwithstanding this, the Democrats’ claims that the turkeys indeed emitted gobbling sounds on multiple occasions conveyed a melancholic sentiment as Obama readies to leave the White House on January 20.

Republican Donald Trump is poised to dismantle numerous programs established by Vice President Joe Biden following his victory over Biden’s vice president, Kamala Harris, in the November election.

Uncertainty has emerged in the United States and other nations due to Trump’s pledges to execute extensive deportations, dismantle the federal bureaucracy, and levy substantial tariffs on imports from foreign countries.

Biden remarked, in a more solemn tone, that this would be “my final opportunity to address you as your president during this season.” Biden’s address was intended to conclude on a momentous note. He also stated that it was “my final opportunity to address this audience.”

Following a disastrous televised debate with Trump in July, Biden exited the race, stating, “Let me express that it has been the honor of my life, and I am eternally grateful.” “I am eternally thankful,” he stated in conclusion. Finally, he expressed, “I will be eternally grateful.”

Ruffled feathers

Notwithstanding this, the outgoing president has pledged to refrain from creating any complications during the transition to Donald Trump’s government. This stands in stark contrast to his opponent, who persistently claims, without basis, that his loss to Biden in the 2020 race was due to a fraudulent campaign.

The White House confirmed on Monday that Vice President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will attend the Republican swearing-in ceremony on January 20. This occurred despite President Trump’s absence at the Democrats’ inauguration in 2021.

During a Thanksgiving dinner in New York with Vice President Joe Biden, Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates informed reporters, “He perceives this as a significant affirmation of our democratic principles and a tribute to the people’s will.”

In a press conference, Bates and Joe Biden spoke.

Vice President Joe Biden’s attention will soon transition to the personal pardons customarily issued by the president of the United States before leaving the White House, as the conclusion of his one-year term approaches. This is because these pardons are often granted by the President of the United States.

Vice President Biden quipped to reporters, “I am informed that there are 2,500 individuals present today seeking a pardon.” However, Biden has declared that there is one that he would not bestow upon his son, Hunter Biden, at this moment.

One of the gravest offenses is falsifying drug use, a charge for which the younger Biden was convicted this year in relation to a firearm purchase. Moreover, he has admitted guilt in a second legal proceeding for tax avoidance. Both charges culminated in convictions earlier this year.

The determination of whether Hunter Biden, whose little son Beau participated in the turkey pardoning event, will face any punishment remains unresolved in both instances. This matter remains unresolved.

On Monday, the White House issued a statement indicating it had no further remarks regarding Vice President Biden’s previous comments about his son’s prospects for obtaining a pardon.

SOUREC: NDTV

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